Dr. Trevor Mundel and other senior staff of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation traveled to Tanzania this summer to see first-hand the successes of Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlets (ADDO). The ADDO program, which began in 2001, grew out of the need to transform the duka la dawa biridis—unlicensed retail drug shops—into profitable, government-accredited drug dispensing outlets that supply quality medicines and services to underserved populations in Tanzania.

Dr. Mundel, Gates Foundation's President of Global Health, was hosted by Management Sciences for Health’s (MSH) Sustainable Drug Seller Initiatives[6] (SDSI) team along with Tanzania’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare through the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority[7] (TFDA) and the Pharmacy Council (PC). The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided generous funding to support Tanzania’s health sector—including the piloting, sustainability, and maintenance of the ADDO program.

[9]Workshop participants discuss how local procurement practices affect access to quality maternal health medicines at the district level in Bangladesh.Photo credit: SIAPS Program/MSH.

Expanding access to essential maternal health medicines saves mothers’ lives. Access to life-saving maternal medicines requires an effective supply chain that delivers the right medicines to the right people at the right times. In many countries, weak pharmaceutical management systems are unable to meet the challenges of providing access to these essential medicines. While efforts to date have been focused on providing support to strengthen national level programs and procurement practices, there is growing evidence that suggests that local procurement (at the district, or hospital level) of these essential medicines is common in many countries.

Universal health coverage (UHC) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are high priorities in global health—just look at the proposed post-2015 development goals. The increasing burden of NCDs is widely recognised, and a growing list of countries have joined the UHC movement. But what’s less widely understood is why a UHC approach is necessary for an effective NCD response.

[17]ADDO owners and dispensers in Mafia Island, Tanzania, learn to use the mobile applications developed by SDSI. The applications allow ADDO personnel to access an SMS-based Pharmacy Council helpline, send service utilization reports to the Pharmacy Council, and to pay annual licensing fees via mobile money.Photo credit: Rachel Lieber/MSH.

In the private sector, Tanzania has more than 1,000 pharmacies, 2,500 pharmaceutical personnel, 6,000 accredited drug dispensing outlets (ADDOs), and more than 18,000 ADDO dispensers. The Pharmacy Council of Tanzania has overseen these facilities and personnel since 2011, but lacked a comprehensive system to manage regulatory information. Without such a system, basic facility and personnel information was inaccessible, the locations of rural ADDO facilities were unclear, and tracking business and professional licensing status, including fees collection, was difficult. Furthermore, the Pharmacy Council had no way to efficiently communicate directly with the outlets.

In years to come we will look back on the summer of 2014 and recall the US Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Acting on the Call: Ending Preventable Child and Maternal Deaths[24] campaign as a turning point[25] in our struggle to reduce maternal, newborn, and child mortality and morbidity. USAID announced[26] this summer that it is realigning $2.9 billion of the Agency’s resources to refocus on high-impact programs with proven track records to save women, newborns, and children under five.

MSH spoke with Fabio Castaño, MD, MPH, global technical lead of family planning and reproductive health about MSH’s approach to family planning and what will define the future of family planning and global health. Below is part one of the conversation.

What is MSH’s approach to family planning and reproductive health?

Dr. Fabio Castaño.Fabio:

First of all, I have to tell you that MSH has been working on family planning [FP] for over 40 years. Our first-ever international program was working with Korea! We supported their successful story of making FP an essential part of public health activities. At that time, we worked on FP from a standpoint of population control. Then, to help improve the health situation, and also contributing to reducing poverty. So, that is an interesting piece of history for MSH.

[38]Dr. Jonathan Quick pitching for partnerships to reach more people with quality healthcare and medicines through the Accredited Drug Shops at the Clinton Global Initiative.Photo credit: Nicole Quinlan/MSH.

MSH President & CEO Dr. Jonathan D. Quick shared MSH's vision to bring quality healthcare and medicines closer to home through our proven Accredited Drug Shops program at the Clinton Global Initiative (#CGI2014[40]) "Scalable Ideas: Pitching for Partnerships" session September 24, 2014. Watch a video of Dr. Quick's pitch and learn more about how you can partner with us.

Today, September 26, is World Contraception Day[43]. The Family Planning 2020[43] (FP 2020) Initiative says the vision for the day "is a world where every pregnancy is wanted. Its mission is to improve the awareness of contraception to enable young people to make informed decisions on their sexual and reproductive health." We share part two of our interview with Dr. Fabio Castaño, MSH’s global technical lead of family planning (FP) and reproductive health, in celebration of World Contraception Day[44]. Join the conversation on social media with hashtag #WCD2014[45].